Cities ask schools to pay for police

Cash-strapped cities eager to save are looking to the Broward County School Board to pay more for school resource officers - policemen and sheriff's deputies who work inside district schools.

The problem is, school district officials say they don't have the money to spend, either.

The point of contention is expected to deepen in coming months, as Broward cities face the prospect of cutting budgets. The school district pays $12,000 toward the salaries of the 152 police officers and Broward Sheriff's Office deputies in the county's public schools, but some cities want the school district to take on a larger share of the cost.

Police officers work in schools, serving as mentors for students and teaching programs such as gang prevention and driver safety.

"It's been recently, with the cutbacks to municipal government, that [city officials] have come forward and said, 'Look, we need more dollars, and we don't think this is a fair partnership,' " said Schools Superintendent Jim Notter.

Pembroke Pines already asked for the district to reimburse the city $900,000 for its expenses with the school resource officer program. Other cities' leaders discussed cutting officers, but opted to make cuts elsewhere before pulling the officers out of schools.

There already are fewer officers in schools this year compared to last year. There are 152 officers in Broward public schools compared to 166 last year - an 8-percent drop.

Roughly one-third of school resource officers are actually Broward Sheriff's Office deputies, with school district figures showing 56 deputies in 69 Broward schools. Miramar has the most of any city, with 18 officers in 17 schools, district figures show.

The Broward League of Cities already raised the topic of more money for school resource officers at a meeting with the School Board this month. More discussion is expected next year, said Joy Cooper, mayor of Hallandale Beach and the league's president.

Notter said the district can't put more money into officers' salaries. Nor does he think the district should have to pay the full salaries of officers who are only in schools for 180 days a year and can be pulled to respond to emergencies.

"Any additional dollars that we would put into that program would have to go out of the classroom ... and we were just unwilling to take the dollars out of the classroom," Notter said.

But cities also are in a tough financial position and their leaders are uneasy about the fiscal future, Cooper said. People want to keep officers in the schools, she said, but "I don't know after Jan. 29," when Floridians will vote on a proposed constitutional amendment to cut property taxes.

Kathy Bushouse can be reached at kbushouse@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4556.